Hollioake ensures Surrey stay perfect

To suffer one bad moment in a match may be regarded as unfortunate, to suffer two is rank bad luck, as Robin Martin-Jenkins can testify.

The Sussex all-rounder was left holding the mucky end of the stick twice at the fag end of Surrey's third successive Twenty20 victory here yesterday. The first occasion came with Surrey looking to hurry the score along when they were on 126 for 6. Martin-Jenkins was perfectly positioned on the long-off boundary when the Surrey leg-spinner Ian Salisbury lofted the last ball of Mark Davis's fourth and final over right down the fielder's throat.

However, as the ball dropped into his safe pair of hands so the unfortunate Martin-Jenkins, in seeking to keep his balance, inadvertently planted his right foot over the boundary rope.

What looked like a certain wicket had been turned into a six for the batsman - a former Sussex player - to the delight of the Surrey fans in the 3,000 crowd who had spent the early evening being entertained here at the Metropolitan Police Sports Ground in East Molesey, to the south west of London.

Martin-Jenkins's disgust when he realised what he had done caused him to throw the ball to the ground. But if he thought it could not get any worse, he was soon disabused of the notion. Martin-Jenkins replaced Davis at the Tennis Court end with Surrey needing five for victory, and his first ball was swung over deep square-leg for another six. Game over.

Poor old Martin-Jenkins had not fared well with the bat either, as he and his colleagues fell short of a challenging total. Only the Sussex captain Chris Adams, with a lusty 36, and the Dutchman Bas Zuiderent, with a beefy 35, injected anything of note into a strangely subdued innings, which was polished off clinically by Adam Hollioake who claimed four wickets in his last three overs.

The Surrey captain then shared in a 46-run stand with the impressive 20-year-old James Benning, who was his team's top scorer with 27 off 22 balls.

One significant difference between the sides was the fact that four Surrey batsmen hit a six, compared with a solitary one for Sussex by Adams. The Lions are roaring away in this short midsummer game.